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Dessert

Cocoanut Cake

A sponge cake made with eggs, sugar, flour, coconut, gelatin, cream, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Cocoanut Cake

Why it works: Coconut and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cocoanut Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the cake

  1. Beat the egg whites separately.

  2. Beat the egg yolks separately.

  3. Mix the beaten whites and yolks together.

  4. Gradually add the sugar and beat for 10 minutes.

  5. Gently stir in the flour without beating.

  6. Bake in jelly cake tins at 400°F (200°C).

Make the coconut filling

  1. Soak the gelatin in warm water for 1 hour until dissolved.

  2. Beat the heavy cream until frothy.

  3. Beat fresh egg whites until stiff.

  4. Stir the dissolved gelatin into the cream.

  5. Add the grated coconut.

  6. Add sugar to taste.

  7. Add vanilla extract.

  8. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

Assemble

  1. Spread the mixture between the cake layers and on top.

  2. Garnish with grated coconut.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Coconut + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites trap air and set the cake's structure, while yolks add richness and tenderness.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the baked cake together as the eggs set.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps the beaten eggs hold their foam while baking.
Gelatine
Sets the cream and coconut filling so it holds its shape when sliced.
Heavy cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the filling a soft, rich texture.
Grated coconut
Adds moisture, chew and coconut flavour to the filling and topping.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when beaten until stiff and folded gently; overmixing deflates the foam, and the filling loses lightness and set.

Swap the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour, cream, vanilla):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Blueberryfits about as well
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, cream, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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